January 26, 2009

Last 48 hours were quite intensive. The source tree of Efika5k2 branch has been updated - the tree was almost 4 months old! I have added a complete contrib directory to the build - the iso is now 150 MB large and contains a complete gcc compiler toolchain for Efika as well as some other goodies.

The kernel.resource got new function, which may be used to change the WMID bits of certain pages of memory. One may use it, for example, to disable caching in some RAM areas. This feature is used by the PCI driver class for efika. Every region allocated for use by PCI bus master devices is excluded from caching. This manouver may simplify driver's code significantly. For example, the OHCI driver uses Endpoint Descriptors (ED) and Transfer Descriptors (TD) which may be used by both CPU and OHCI controller. With an incoherent cache enabled, the driver has to either flush or invalidate the cached copies of descriptors permanently. Here, uncached region for these descriptors permits a more simple and error-safer code.

I have changed the scheduler a bit. The old one was not so stable upon very small CPU loads. It's tendency was to lock interrupts and put CPU into sleep mode. Very unfortunate, I must say ;) The updated code introduces the Idle Task which enters the power saving mode in a safer way. The scheduler calculates the time which CPU spent during execution of very task. Have a look yourself at C:TaskList command to understand what I mean :)

Wait, Did I wrote "have a look yourself"? Yes! Download this torrent, and test the AROS for efika yourself. It is not complete yet. You will surely see it crashing. The both IDE and network drivers are missnig. The release is unstable. Just put the ISO on CD, put it into your USB-CD or USB-DVD drive and start efika. Then, type following commands in the OF prompt:

setenv boot-device cdboot cd os_image

Once you see the Boot? > prompt, press 1 and be patient. The OF needs some time to read all aros' modules and will put enourmous amount of debug info. It will even report some missing file. Once AROS starts up, you will see the mouse pointer on the screen and CD drive working. Have fun. The serial port outputs debug information at 115200bps, 8N1.